Former vice president Al Gore, newly flush with cash from his sale of his Current TV to Al Qaeda's favorite TV channel, Al Jazeera, did not even bother to show up for the first meeting between the Current staff and the new ownership.
New York Post TV critic Linda Stasi has the story:
Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses.
That would be two of Al Jazeera’s top guys: Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of international operations, and Muftah AlSuwaidan, general manager of the London bureau.
Ominously missing was the creator of Current, the self proclaimed inventor of the Internet and savior of clean energy, Al Gore, although his partner, Joel Hyatt, stood proudly with the Al Jazeera honchos.
“Of course Al didn’t show up,” said one high placed Current staffer. “He has no credibility.
“He’s supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold [the channel] to very big oil, the emir of Qatar! Current never even took big oil advertising—and Al Gore, that bulls***ter sells to the emir?”
The meeting, while not contentious, was, according to staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, miserable.
Gore was also blasted by his former employees for his hypocrisy in trying to complete the Current sale in 2012 in order to evade higher tax rates, despite the fact that just two months prior, he had said the following:
"The single most popular proposal we had was to reduce taxes on working people and lift the higher rate. Let's give an incentive to work, and let's ask the most fortunate in the society, including me and you, to do our fair share.